New Delhi: Batting great Sachin Tendulkar has hailed Cheteshwar Pujara's batting and Umesh Yadav's bowling in the just concluded India-Australia Test series.
Pujara played pivotal knocks in the four-match series and helped India regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The 29-year-old, in the process, created a new record by scoring the most runs in a Test season for India, breaking the previous mark set by Gautam Gambhir eight years ago.
Lauding the right-handed batsman's efforts, Tendulkar came up with a fitting sobriquet, “silent warrior”.
"Pujara has been a silent warrior, terrific temperament, and somebody again who (is) dedicated, disciplined and focused. I have seen him from close quarters and I was impressed with what I saw, I knew that this guy is there for long time," said Tendulkar.
Pujara also played the longest innings by an Indian in Test cricket, when he defied the Aussie attack for 525 balls in Ranchi, His knock of 202 runs also helped India secure a draw. In the series, he scored 405 runs, including a match-winning 92 in the second innings of the second Test.
Tendulkar, who himself was once a symbol of fitness, also hailed pacer Yadav for showing up through a long home season.
"The way guys have shown discipline and commitment, 13 Test matches in a row, I don't remember anything like that happening during our periods and someone like Umesh (Yadav) have played 12 of them, so for a fast bowler it is really taxing, that shows that you are going to work on your body," Tendulkar added.
Tendulkar also predicted that Umesh will only get better with age.
"Umesh is a kind of a bowler who keeps getting better with time, the more he bowls the better he gets. And you could see that, the last innings of the season that he bowled was possibly the best spell," said Tendulkar.
In the series against Australia, the 29-year-old pacer from Vidarbha picked up 17 wickets in four Tests against Australia. And his performance in Dharamsala was stand out, not only for picking wickets, but also for terrorizing Aussie batsman, with pace and unplayable reverse swing.
"I think somebody who bowls good reverse swing will always be effective in India. (The) surfaces, texture, there is reverse swing and it happened in Dharamshala as well. Umesh bowled a couple of damn good reverse swingers," an impressed Tendulkar added.
